W.W.1 magazine, trench and gun emplacement, view from NE

Description W.W.1 magazine, trench and gun emplacement, view from NE

Date 23/5/1997

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 670098

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 21643 CN

Scope and Content World War I magazine and gun emplacement, Stanger Head, Flotta, Orkney Islands In both World Wars coast batteries were built to protect the channels into Scapa Flow and Kirkwall Bay, where there was an important contraband control. The greatest concentrations of firepower were at the main north-western and southern entrances to the Flow, the latter covered by the coast batteries on Hoxa Head on South Ronaldsay and here on Stanger Head on Flotta. In the middle foreground of this view across Hoxa Sound is one end of the semi-subterranean magazine or ammunition store, from which an access trench runs downslope to one of a pair of open gun emplacements or barbettes in which quick-fire four-inch guns were mounted in World War I. This was one of a pair of two-gun batteries on this flank of the headland, but of its partner, and of the World War I battery which comprised a pair of larger, six-inch guns further to the west (right), nothing now survives. Quarrying activities have also removed or buried much of their World War II successors. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/670098

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap